Fare's not fair when it comes to train prices

In France there are no such things as "on peak" and "return" tickets, which the UK companies are using as revenue-raising scams. You buy a single ticket (at the station) for any time you want. If you want to come back, you buy another ticket. Prices are fixed, so you don't have to worry about being ripped off, like in the UK, because you didn't buy your ticket three months in advance after searching the internet all week. bainbridged

• There are trains listed on the National Rail timetable that it is impossible to buy tickets for on the main web ticket resellers. Do the rail companies want to channel everyone on to specific trains so they can maximise sales (and overcrowd them), and then claim there are other trains running empty so they can phase them out? credulous

• We'd need the tacit consent of rail and underground staff to do it, but two days of organised, collective fare-dodging might make the rail operators/TFL think twice about ripping off customers. dothestrand

• Went to the station yesterday to buy a day return ticket from Aberdeen to Edinburgh for next Tuesday, so I was too late for advanced deals. I was quoted £66, but the clerk was excellent and determined to save me money. He worked out the best way and saved me £26! I was delighted – despite ending up with six separate tickets! aberquine

• Trains and their associated fares are a joke. This summer, my family and I travelled to Italy from Edinburgh by train. Even trying to buy online for the UK leg was a joke. There's so many hidden fares and tricks of the trade you need to know so you don't get ripped off. Luckily, there's a great website that talks you through it all (seat61.com), but why on earth should it be this way?

The fare structure on the continent is as simple as you could wish for ... you are handed a ticket that does exactly what you want it to do, for a reasonable cost. How difficult can it be? jgw1

• Yet another example of a privatised industry handed a monopoly by the government and screwing the public to put money in shareholders' pockets. Maybe a not-for-profit charity, staffed by people who give a damn, would do a better job. shuannixon

• I've just bought a plane ticket from Manchester to Plymouth. Doing the journey by train would have been slower and more expensive – £114 for the train and £70 for the flight. jiffer

• At Christmas I take the train from Cambridge to Newcastle upon Tyne. The cost is £93 return if I buy on the day. I can only buy three weeks in advance and it is still £40-50.

The journey goes something like this: Sit in cold, crappy station with overpriced food until slow train to Peterborough arrives. Stand all the way to Peterborough with 300 others in a crappy, cramped train with one toilet and no air conditioning. Told to get your ticket out at least four times by surly staff. Get off after an hour to wait 30 minutes at Peterborough – truly the worst bit. A horrible station, dirty, with unhelpful, rude staff. Then a three-hour train ride when you might get a seat, if you're lucky. Contrast this with a four-hour car journey, petrol £60 return or one hour by plane from £30. skipperD

• Most people don't have a choice and, as such, price isn't sensitive to demand. So as well as jacking up the price, the companies can also invest as little as possible. It's a sorry mess. dominho

• Let's end the nonsense of hundreds of empty first class carriages being towed pointlessly thousands of miles across the country, adding to CO2 emissions, yet contributing nothing to railway capacity because almost no one can afford to travel in them. It would be funny if it were not so tragic.

A more inefficient use of scarce resources could not be devised. The railways make me ashamed to be British. bobjob21

The view from abroad

I live in Japan: I commute from Kyoto to Osaka and change trains once. It's an express train, immaculately clean, always on time and the service staff are superb. The cost? ¥390. That's just less than two quid. A trip from King's Cross to Peterborough, on a crappy rat cab of a train, with rude, slobby station staff, costs about 20 quid. It's a scandal which reflects the values of the society which produces it. lesoy

• I live in Spain (just outside Barcelona) and have a 50-minute commute. My monthly train ticket (50 journeys to use in 30 days) is about £27.

I have been considering returning to the UK, but whenever I check living costs for any potential jobs, I have to refuse – always because of the sheer, crazy costs of the commute! steorra

• Why the complexity? Amsterdam to Maastrict, 2.30hr journey, cost €26 for a single, whether you buy two weeks or two minutes in advance. That simple. turbohobo